A/HRC/37/54 71. A human rights impact assessment should ensure meaningful participation of all stakeholders, including relevant government departments, business and trade union representatives and, in particular, affected population groups and their representatives, such as women, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, minorities and other groups at risk of marginalization in the national context, such as indigenous peoples. Active participation in addressing fiscal consolidation measures also requires the appropriate time frame for both authorities and those affected and their representatives to be able to prepare and evaluate policy alternatives. Given the technical complexities of fiscal consolidation measures, a certain level of expertise is needed for engaging in the actual evaluation. That is where the role of civil society organizations, think tanks and academics is particularly valuable as they can provide expert evaluation. They can play an important role in engaging with affected groups to ensure that their experiences and concerns are incorporated in the analysis and in “translating” the findings of the impact analysis to a wider audience. VIII. Conclusions and recommendations A. Conclusions and way forward 72. Neither the lessons learned from responses to earlier crises about the importance of protecting social spending nor the increasing emphasis on the instrumental role of human rights in improving development outcomes appear to have played a sufficiently explicit role in the analyses or structuring of responses by governments and international financial institutions to the recent financial crisis. The conclusions drawn in 1990 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in response to earlier crises remain equally valid today. Although the severe human rights impacts of the recent financial crisis have been widely and well documented, policy responses to the crisis revealed a deep-seated structural neglect of human rights in economic policy formulation, insufficient protection of the most vulnerable and a lack of attention to participation, consultation, transparency and accountability. 73. That neglect is the driving force behind the development of guiding principles for assessing the human rights impact of economic reform programmes and the development of analytical and methodological tools to assess human rights impacts. The guiding principles will help States and international financial institutions to comply with their human rights obligations in periods of financial distress when considering fiscal consolidation measures, countercyclical initiatives and alternative economic choices. Although such human rights-specific guidance has not yet been adequately developed, relevant tools, experience and research exist to inform the efforts to do so. 74. The guiding principles should start from the premise that managing economic and fiscal affairs is a core government function and responsibility. Fiscal consolidation and wider economic reforms are not inherently incompatible with a State’s human rights duties; indeed, such measures can comply with international standards if they are designed and implemented with those standards in mind. The extent to which budget cuts may undermine human rights depends on how such cuts are implemented. For example, it makes a difference whether cuts worsen existing inequalities or not and who is affected. Cost containment measures should be planned in such a way that they do not undermine the accessibility, affordability and quality of service delivery. The aim of reforms should be to strengthen, adjust and close gaps in social protection systems, not dismantle or undermine them. 75. Timely and credible data that can be disaggregated as appropriate is critical to analysing the impacts of fiscal consolidation in a robust, useful and credible manner information, which allows more precise monitoring of the human rights situation and the impact of public policies on the population. See the submission at http://sice.ine.gob.bo/HR2016/UN/index. php?r=site/index. 18